chinchilla
UK[tʃɪnˈtʃɪlə]US[tʃɪnˈtʃɪlə]
n
a small south american rodent with soft grey fur and a long bushy tail.
n
the highly valued fur of the chinchilla.
Etymology
the word 'chinchilla' entered english in the early 17th century from spanish, which itself borrowed it from a south american indigenous language, likely aymara or quechua. the name is believed to derive from the name of the chincha people of the andes, combined with the spanish diminutive suffix '-illa', thus meaning 'little chincha'. the term originally referred to the animal native to the region and later, by metonymy, to its luxurious fur. its journey from a local tribal name to a globally recognized term for a luxury commodity exemplifies the flow of words through trade and cultural contact.
Analysis
this is a loanword adopted directly from spanish. no further segmentation into meaningful english substrings is possible without distorting the word's form.
Examples
the chinchilla is a nocturnal animal that lives in the andes mountains.
her coat was trimmed with exquisite chinchilla fur.
we visited a breeder who specialized in raising chinchillas as pets.